1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a monolithic ceramic capacitor. In particular, the present invention relates to a monolithic ceramic capacitor including a ceramic sintered body and a plurality of first and second inner electrodes that are alternately disposed inside the ceramic sintered body to be opposed to each other with a ceramic layer interposed between the adjacent first and second inner electrodes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Monolithic ceramic capacitors have been used in many electronic devices, such as cellular phones and notebook personal computers.
With a recent trend toward smaller sizes and larger capacities of electronic devices in which monolithic ceramic capacitors are mounted, demands for smaller sizes and larger capacities of the monolithic ceramic capacitors have also increased more and more. In such a situation, monolithic ceramic capacitors having smaller sizes and larger capacities and methods of manufacturing them are variously proposed as described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-318060, for example.
One example of methods for increasing the capacity of a monolithic ceramic capacitor is to reduce the thickness of a ceramic layer interposed between electrodes. However, a grain size has to be reduced in order to reduce the thickness of the ceramic layer. Reducing the grain size requires a pulverizing step to be performed for a longer time. Accordingly, a manufacturing time is prolonged and a manufacturing cost is increased. Another problem is that, when the ceramic layer is thin, dielectric breakdown is apt to occur and reliability of the ceramic capacitor is degraded.